LET'S TALK: Marvel

[abysslord]

Voice activated webbing?

I agree with that, and the new suit for every occasion. I kind of miss him being a photographer truthfully, even though this new job makes it easier to understand how he can live his double life.

But the voice-activated thing was funny. How is that quicker than hitting a button? I can see it being used if you couldn't hit the button, but that wasn't the case. I mean, the dude could create web bats in the early issues so he's pretty talented with those web shooters already.

But again, if I latch onto something that really bothers me, it is a problem for me to ... to just let it go. Case in point, I am getting ready to drop BATWOMAN because I can't get past how white she appears, and no-one can tell me why.
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I have the same problem. Bone white skin, bright red hair .... hmm, wonder who that could be as I'm talking to Carol with bone white skin and bright red hair.

BUT, this seems to be a problem with DC characters in general. In Nightwing, Dick [hmm, guess you can't call people by their name if it's slang for Richard on this forum ] is talking to this guy about his problems. Minutes later, he rescues him as Nightwing and the guy says "I don't know what you're doing here....". come on, it's a tiny mask around his eyes ... really? That is the identity hider? Same thing happened in #1, the killer is stalking Grayson, loses him in an alley, gets attacked by Nightwing who looks strikingly similar except his eyes are covered ... and this super killer can't see it.

At least Superman changes his hair.

[boshuda]

But again, if I latch onto something that really bothers me, it is a problem for me to ... to just let it go. Case in point, I am getting ready to drop BATWOMAN because I can't get past how white she appears, and no-one can tell me why.
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I have the same problem. Bone white skin, bright red hair .... hmm, wonder who that could be as I'm talking to Carol with bone white skin and bright red hair.

I figure it's an obvious double-trick. Her face is super white and her hair is super red while Batwoman. Detectives and others would think "who would be stupid enough to run around without disguising these obvious traits?". It's sort of like hiding in plain sight... Personally, I think it's brilliant.

As to Marvel I would love to see them 'trim the fat'. If they dropped down to one or two x-titles, Avengers titles, Spidey, etc. so each 'universe' was now one or two titles I would get the entire Marvel universe. I'm talking like 20-25 Marvel monthly titles total.

[Webhead]

Putting a positive spin on the thread......

Howzabout that Spider-Man! While I didn't care for Brand New Day as a story/concept, it did pave the way for what I personally feel are the best Spidey comics in 15 years. And since the Big Time storyline, Slott kicked it up an extra notch, he's doing some really good stuff.

I lovin' Slott's Spider-Man

I personally hated OMD/BND

In my opinion at it's best BND was just okay, most of the time it felt like I was read just another superhero comic. It was not until Slott that it felt like I was reading a Spider-man book and a really great Spider-Man. To me it feels like Slott really knows Spider-man/Peter Parker, something that was missing when it was being written by the Spider-Trust

While I'm at it, Waid's Daredevil is a breath of fresh air as well, best Daredevil in the last 2 years.

I could not agree more. I had stopped reading DD during Bendis run not because of his writing but because of the art. Bendis gritty DD was good but it was not until Waid that I realized how much I missed a non-gritty Horn Head.

Hickman is telling a great story in Fantastic Four (but I HATE how I can't just call it FF, because that would confuse it with that other book). #602 finished off with a BANG!!!!! Can't wait to see how that plays out.

I'm with you on the FF thing. I still call it FF when I should be calling it Fantastic Four. Hickman is really telling a grand story that I am digging.

[BobBretall]

Marvel had a couple of announcements at SXSW today:

"Infinite Comics"
Waid: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=37460
Quesada: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=37459

Today, Waid's own research intersected with Marvel Comics' digital plans at South By Southwest Interactive in Austin, TX where the publisher revealed that he'd write their first "Marvel Infinite Comics" made straight for tablets like the iPad.

"Marvel ReEvolution "
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=37458

Marvel AR will be a free application promoted on the cover of "AvX" so anyone who picks the book up in a comic shop can download the app and dive into the added content. "There is nothing that we're doing that means you have to spend more money to enjoy it. In fact, for the same amount of money, I'd say you're getting a lot more value," Phillips said. "The AR app is really targeted towards the print comics reader. It's really keying off the print comic itself. There's no Augmented Reality for a digital comic. Will we get there? Yeah, we'll get there. But this is the start of a much bigger initiative, and the piece we're kicking off with is the print AR app. The way it works is that there are certain image throughout the story where you can take your phone or whatever device you're using to key off that image and get the augmented experience. And for now, that's restricted to the print comic.

"Digital codes in all $3.99 comics"
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=37430

[BobBretall]

"Digital codes in all $3.99 comics"
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=37430

My thoughts on this:

1) Now you won't be able to browse through any $3.99 comics in the comic shop because they'll all be polybagged. I don't necessarily see this as a good thing. Or will they do something like have a sticker or scratch off area over the digital code? In this case you'll need to degrade your comic to get at the digital code. For the "condition czars" in our audience, does that drop the grade to VF? Lower?

2) Will this be used as an excuse to raise more books to $3.99 because you're now getting a digital copy? To me that's essentially giving me a $2.99 comic & forcing me to pay another $1 for a digital copy I may or may not view.

3) I'd really appreciate it if Marvel got their computer site to work on Firefox. I don't really want to install Chrome just to look at some digital comics.

[BobBretall]

Today, Waid's own research intersected with Marvel Comics' digital plans at South By Southwest Interactive in Austin, TX where the publisher revealed that he'd write their first "Marvel Infinite Comics" made straight for tablets like the iPad.

This one's a moot point for me since I don't have a "tablet like an iPad". When I can view this in Firefox I'd be interested to check it out.

But I think this is NOT targeted at existing comics fans. As such, what hard-core comics fans think (e.g. fans posting on comics forums) is relatively moot to whether this will accomplish what Marvel wants to really accomplish or not.

iPad owners are the audience for this. NOT comics fans.

Sure, there's an intersection, but there are (generously) a couple hundred thousand comics fans.

I did some digging & it's estimated that Apple sold more than 6 million iPads in just Q4 of 2011.

Comics fans are a pitiful drop in the bucket compared to that potential audience.

[Gilgabob]

I read the "Marvel Revolution" story regarding the additional "stories" you can purchase for your tablet device.

I use my laptop to read digital comics (I don't get the fascination with Ipads and the like) but I'm wondering how long these stories are going to be for .99.

AvX is already a 12 issue event with myriad crossovers in the regular Marvel universe ongoings, do we really need more stories tying into it?
I'm skipping this entire thing and with the announcement of even more supplemental material being tied to the AvX event I'm really happy I did.

[Danscomics]

1) Now you won't be able to browse through any $3.99 comics in the comic shop because they'll all be polybagged. I don't necessarily see this as a good thing. Or will they do something like have a sticker or scratch off area over the digital code? In this case you'll need to degrade your comic to get at the digital code. For the "condition czars" in our audience, does that drop the grade to VF? Lower?

They stopped the polybagging of issues with digital codes already. If I recall correctly the #7 issues of all the Ultimate titles was the first solicited without polybags. They have a sticker now on one of the back page.

[boshuda]

They stopped the polybagging of issues with digital codes already. If I recall correctly the #7 issues of all the Ultimate titles was the first solicited without polybags. They have a sticker now on one of the back page.

Does this lack of polybag put an extra strain on you? Seems like for the most part it wouldn't be a problem, but I can see people hiding in a corner with their iphone or android and plugging the code in without buying the book.

I use my laptop to read digital comics (I don't get the fascination with Ipads and the like)

I like reading on a tablet because it's lighter and easier to flip the screen around. I hate zooming in to read text. It means I can sit on the couch or in bed with my wife and read without a massive lump sitting on my lap. Part of that may be that my laptop is old, and heavy with a dimly lit screen.

I got a couple of these 27" monitors and reading on them is quite nice. Two pages sit nicely side by side, and hitting a double-page spread is better than the print version. There are probably higher-resolution 27" monitors available now for less than I paid for mine. I recommend it if you spend enough time at your desktop to justify one or two. Obviously it's not a great way to spend your comic money - that's a lot of comics

[Danscomics]

They stopped the polybagging of issues with digital codes already. If I recall correctly the #7 issues of all the Ultimate titles was the first solicited without polybags. They have a sticker now on one of the back page.

Does this lack of polybag put an extra strain on you? Seems like for the most part it wouldn't be a problem, but I can see people hiding in a corner with their iphone or android and plugging the code in without buying the book.

No, but our new comics rack is right near the register and there really isn't a corner to hide in. And then back issues get bagged and boarded before they get filed in the racks. Although those racks are very easy to see from the counter too so unless they decide to hide under the racks to steal the code there isn't a way to do it. I guess that's the 1 advantage to a small store.

[BadDeacon]

It seems that if folks want to acquire digital comics for free, there are much easier methods than skulking around a comic shop trying to not get caught ripping off digital codes.

[boshuda]

It seems that if folks want to acquire digital comics for free, there are much easier methods than skulking around a comic shop trying to not get caught ripping off digital codes.

True, but I wonder. And Danscomics is a shop owner, so I'm curious to hear from the 'front line'.

[BobBretall]

No, but our new comics rack is right near the register and there really isn't a corner to hide in. And then back issues get bagged and boarded before they get filed in the racks. Although those racks are very easy to see from the counter too so unless they decide to hide under the racks to steal the code there isn't a way to do it. I guess that's the 1 advantage to a small store.

I don't buy Ultimate comics or Avenging Spider-Man so was unaware of the new "sticker in the back" being the default now.

Is the code printed ON the sticker, or do you need to remove the sticker to see the code underneath it?

[LA Rabbit]

Sure, there's an intersection, but there are (generously) a couple hundred thousand comics fans.

Hey, that makes me part of the 1 percent. Actually quite a bit smaller than 1 percent, if we take 300 million as the population and say 200k are comic fans, so we are the less that .1 percent.

I am glad they are reaching out to the rest of the world. As has been noted, I think have the entire backlog of books available at the virtual swipe of a credit card can make it very easy for new readers.

The trade off will be that they would get to constantly repackage the same content over and over again. Think about Walking Dead, if we were in a world of digital, there would be 1 purchase of each issue instead of monthly, softcover, hardcover, compendium, weekly, etc. That is lost revenue to the publishers. It seems like Marvel with their heavy trade practice would really lose out on the extra cash.

I know that is one of the issues with the movie industry, they would get box office, pay cable, Betamax, VHS, Laser Disk, Blu-Ray, Video on Demand, basic cable, TV rights, plus repackaged to foreign markets. All out of the same movie. In a digital world, that is just one sale.

[BobBretall]

It seems that if folks want to acquire digital comics for free, there are much easier methods than skulking around a comic shop trying to not get caught ripping off digital codes.

True, but I wonder. And Danscomics is a shop owner, so I'm curious to hear from the 'front line'.

Yes, I'd worry that when a shop is busy (like on Weds), it would be easy to flip open some comics & snap a pick of the code with your phone. This assumes the code is visible without having to tear off a sticker that is on top of the code.

I'll have to have a look at one of these comics next time I'm in a shop.